Blog Post Archive

It's been two days since Dr. Walter Palmer was identified as the killer of a protected Zimbabwean lion named Cecil, and things are only getting worse for the Minnesota dentist. The New York Times reports that Palmer's Bloomington office has been closed since at least Tuesday, which hasn't stopped angry animal... More »

Standing on a subway platform without air-conditioning on a 95-degree day is miserable no matter where you do it. But reporters at WNYC decided to quantify that discomfort by recording the temperatures of 103 subway stations during rush hour on Wednesday, one of the hottest days of the year. According... More »

At an event hosted by Duke University School of Law on Wednesday night, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg mentioned that her meme-spawning internet persona — Notorious R.B.G. — had inspired her to brush up on her hip-hop history. (When Ginsburg first learned of her nickname, she later confessed she "had to be told by... More »

At the start of his career, not long after he helped Richard Nixon win the 1968 election, Roger Ailes boasted to a reporter that television would one day replace the political party as the most powerful force in American politics. If there is any doubt that the Fox News founder... More »

The Major League Baseball trade deadline is tomorrow, and the Mets have been active over the past several days, acquiring Juan Uribe, Kelly Johnson, and Tyler Clippard. Last night at around 9 p.m., reports circulated on Twitter that they’d made another, even bigger move, trading Wilmer Flores and Zack Wheeler... More »

A week from today, ten Republican candidates will grace the stage at the first presidential debate of the 2016 election. Who makes that cut from the field of 16 (wait, 17) will be decided by the polls; Fox News, which is hosting the event, will average five national polls and... More »

Neoconservative éminence grise Norman Podhoretz has been arguing for many years that bombing Iran is the only way to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He made the case privately and publicly, and kept it up. And Podhoretz continues to believe that a military attack is the only way to... More »

Newsweek reports that the College Board has revised AP U.S. history standards in response to complaints last year that "most people when they finish that course, they’d be ready to sign up for ISIS," and that it presented “a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s... More »

Jon Stewart already explained in a Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore cameo that his so-called "secret meeting" with President Obama was actually in the visitor's log, but apparently he felt the need to elaborate further on his own show – or he just wanted to make a crude sexual joke... More »

If you're a right-leaning hipster who considers all 16 Republicans currently running for president a bit too mainstream, have we got the candidate for you. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore filed with the FEC on Wednesday, just eight days before the first GOP debate. Gilmore served as governor from 1998-2002... More »

Four months ago, an independent review concluded that Rolling Stone's article about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia was "a journalistic failure that was avoidable." The magazine retracted the story and apologized, but publisher Jann Wenner said no one involved in the story's publication would be fired.... More »

In France's Port of Calais, thousands of migrants — including many refugees from Africa and the Middle East — have set up camp not far from the entrance to the Channel tunnel, which connects France and Great Britain. They are waiting for the chance to climb on or under a truck... More »

Experts are examining apparent airplane debris found off the coast of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to determine whether it's a piece of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, according to a member of the French Air Force. Initial reports have indicated that the debris, found earlier today, is a... More »

Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced on Wednesday that Ray Tensing, a University of Cincinnati police officer who shot Samuel DuBose — a 43-year-old black man pulled over for not having a license plate on the front of his car — in the head on July 19, will be charged with murder. "It... More »

Democratic Representative Chaka Fattah and four of his associates were hit with a 29-count indictment on Wednesday. The charges include bribery, participating in a racketeering conspiracy, accepting illegal contributions, mail fraud, stealing charitable funds, and falsification of records. Show More Summary

Marcus Ferrell, the new African-American outreach coordinator for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, was only a week into his new job when he went to Netroots Nation two weekends ago and watched Black Lives Matter activists shout down his candidate. “He felt a little ambushed, quite honestly... he’s a human... More »

Yesterday, the NFL announced that commissioner Roger Goodell had upheld Tom Brady’s four-game suspension for his alleged role in the Patriots’ ball-deflation scandal. Today, Brady responded with a Facebook post not only proclaiming his innocence, but insisting that no one in the organization had done anything wrong.From his post: I... More »

The University of New Hampshire has a “Bias-Free Language Guide.” As the document assures its readers, it “is not meant to represent absolute requirements of language use.” (Universities have tried imposing absolute requirements of language use, only to be struck down on First Amendment grounds.) So the guide should be... More »

As of yesterday morning, Lindsey Graham and George Pataki were definitely not going to make it into either of Fox News' Republican presidential debates scheduled next week; Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Carly Fiorina were at risk of being left off-stage, too. The main attraction — a 9 p.m. debate... More »

Joyce Mitchell, the prison seamstress who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to helping Richard Matt and David Sweat escape from Clinton Correctional Facility, spoke with investigators at length about her role in the strange prison break. NBC News obtained some of the statements and reported all the seamy details today, which... More »